Brentford 4-0 Man Utd (Dasilva ’10, Jensen ’18, Mee ’30, Mbeumo ’35)
GTECH STADIUM — Manchester United plunged to new depths – and to the bottom of the Premier League – as Erik ten Hag’s disastrous start continued with a 4-0 defeat to Brentford.
The Bees raced into a four-goal lead after just 35 minutes, condemning United to a seventh straight loss away from home – their worst run on the road since 1936.
David de Gea was subjected to the cruellest of replays after an unmitigated howler for Josh Dasilva’s opener, the 23-year-old testing the United goalkeeper from outside the box and seeing his strike slip meekly through his hands. Harry Maguire had been hurried out of possession for the throw in the build-up and with the centre-back evidently rattled, he soon earned a booking for conceding a free-kick right on the edge of the box.
Mathias Jensen glazed the set-piece over, but had his goal just moments later when De Gea played a short pass out to Christian Eriksen – roundly jeered by the home fans on his Brentford return – but with the Dane being closed down by his compatriot, he panicked into giving it straight to Jensen, who took a touch around him before doubling Brentford’s lead.
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Brentford’s tried-and-tested trick of two men on the corner post was the least of United’s worries. Bryan Mbeumo crossed it in to Ivan Toney at the back post who – ever so predictably – out-jumped Lisandro Martinez and headed across goal to find Ben Mee.
The one reliable pattern of this United set-up is that when you think it can’t get worse, it invariably can. Within five minutes, Christian Norgaard was defending a United chance in his own box when he was given time to look up, wait the crucial seconds for the counter and play a long ball to Toney in an exquisite counter.
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The Brentford forward raced down the wing and crossed to Mbeumo, who with one touch away from Luke Shaw epitomised an abject lack of desire from the visitors, clad in their new green away strip – if the performance weren’t sickening enough for the thousands of United fans who made the 400-mile round trip on a day of nationwide strikes.
The response from Ten Hag was to ditch the latest iteration of this hopeless central midfield, which this time had seen Eriksen drop deeper alongside Fred. It had borne some fruit in the later stages in the 2-1 defeat to Brighton after the withdrawal of Scott McTominay, who was dropped this time and replaced by the returning Cristiano Ronaldo.
At half-time, Fred, Shaw and Martinez were off, McTominay Raphael Varane and Tyrell Malacia at least having some effect in terms of damage limitation. Perhaps that is all the coming weeks are to be for Ten Hag.
Man Utd player ratings
- De Gea 2 – An inexcusable blunder for the first goal and a thoughtless pass to Eriksen that led to the second. Slightly redeemed himself in the second half with saves from Aaron Buchanan Hickey and Mbeumo.
- Dalot 3 Didn’t put the yards in and as a result, held Sancho back too
- Maguire 3 Not explicitly at fault but this is a defence which is totally disorganised and his positioning did not help
- Martinez 2 What a start it’s been. Total chaos, beaten to everything. Lack of height looks to be a serious problem – who could have seen that coming?
- Shaw 3 – The way substitute Malacia later managed to contain Mbeumo was a damning indictment of Shaw’s lack of pace. Sloppy in possession and one of the many at fault for Brentford’s goal on the break
- Fred 3 Roerslev and Mbuemo had fun with him,
- Eriksen 4 A horrible return – started in a deeper role but partly at fault for the second goal and didn’t shore up the midfield at all
- Sancho 3 Anonymous and taken off on the hour mark
- Fernandes 4 Tried to test Raya on a couple of occasions but uninspiring
- Rashford 3 Non-existent. Didn’t offer any width
- Ronaldo 4 Ronaldo is never going to excel when United are up against it like this
Brentford player ratings
- Raya 6 – Very little to do; United had four shots on target but never looked like scoring
- Hickey 6.5 – Could have had a goal but
- Roeslev 7 – Brentford struggled to get out after Ten Hag’s half-time subs
- Jansson 7 – A quiet afternoon for Ronaldo thanks to Jansson’s contribution
- Mee 7 – The centre-back Martinez is not and made his presence known with the third goal
- Henry 7 – Terrific intensity and plays such a role in Brentford’s breakaways
- Norgaard 7.5 A brilliant hoof up the field for the fourth goal
- Jensen 7 – Kept Eriksen at bay which was always going to be the key to stifling United creatively
- Dasilva 7.5 – Spent 18 months injured but has now scored in successive games
- Toney 8 – Two assists and is continuing to offer Thomas Frank’s attack a lot more than goals
- Mbeumo 8 – Overran Shaw, petrified United’s defence with his set-pieces (most do, to be fair) and deserved his goal
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